Wednesday, 13 August 2008

Our July/August cover story asked whether sport, particularly Olympic sport, has the power to transcend politics and, on the evidence of events in Beijing this morning, the answer appears to be a firm "no".

Georgia beat Russia, for the only time this week, in the women's beach volleyball (genuine sport or attractive people in bikinis hitting a ball around a beach? You decide) and as this report from the Guardian shows, the Olympic dream failed to prevail. They didn't even manage to avoid mentioning the war.